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Langdale Water Taxi

by Nick Newell 2021

Orville Becker

Orville Becker (Photo from the Nick Newell collection.)

Orville D. Becker, was born in 1914, the son of Oliver Becker, Howe Sound pioneer.

Business Card

Business card for the Langdale Water Taxi (Photo from the Nick Newell collection.)

His daughter, Janet Becker Neil, told me that the exact date her Dad started the water taxi service is unknown but it was probably in the 1950s. Together they had three daughters and a son who lived on a small farm at New Brighton BC. Janet remembered that her Dad primarily did trips between Langdale and New Brighton, Gambier Harbour, and West Bay. He also made runs to Keats Island. When BC Hydro or BC Telephone needed to go to these two islands for repairs her Dad would take them.

Coming home from a run late one stormy night her Dad hit a "dead head". It was dark but he was able to make it to the wharf and tie up. In the morning the boat was mostly submerged. That was a very scary one because Dad could not swim and because this was his livelihood. I don’t remember details but the boat was repaired. his family gave him a gift of a floater jacket after that incident.

Janet further recalled that "When we could not dock at Hopkins Landing or Langdale because of high winds to catch the bus to school Dad would take us and drop us at the YMCA camp where we would have to walk to school. It was a bit of a hike to Langdale Elementary School but the dock at the YMCA camp was a wee bit sheltered. Orville had the mail run to Gambier, he would pick up the mail from the store/post office at Hopkins Landing he would then come back to New Brighton where he would drop off the mail for New Brighton at the post office and using his tractor would the deliver the mail over to Gambier Harbour post office. Another memory that I have is coming home from school and having killer whales swimming beside the boat."

Dodie Errico recalled "What I remember about Orville is that he was very proud of his boat. When he was first in the hospital Andy Harper's uncle, John Knight, wanted to run the water taxi for Orville so the family would have some income. But there was no way Orville would allow his boat to be run by anyone but himself. John Knight approached my father (Jack Myers) about using our boat instead. Dad said "no problem" so the water taxi service continued. When Orville returned to the island John Knight gave all the money to Orville along with his observation of how busy the business was. Orville was well respected in the community, when he was ill others such as Jack Gooldrup stepped in with his own boat Sandy and did the mail run to Vancouver for him."

On December 4, 1972, at the age of 58, Orville passed away. The water taxi service was taken over by John Knight and Jack Myers and today is operated by Bruce Kerr of Kona Winds Yacht Charters.

NAME

One of the Pamela boats (Photo from the Nick Newell collection.)

Orville operated three different water taxis over the years: the Pamela I, Pamela II and Pamela III. They were all named after his wife Pamela Becker. Andy Harper identified one of the boats as a 22 foot Allen, the other was most likely a Turner. The first boat was a small air–cooled carvel planked boat. All the boats were reported to be noisy, powered by inboard gas engine. Other than the air–cooled engine they were most likely Chrysler Marine engines.

NAME

One of the Pamela boats (Photo from the Nick Newell collection.)

My information came from Janet Neil, Dodie and Bill Errico, Andy Harper, and Kaylin Schober of the Sunshine Coast Museum and Archives


To quote from this article please cite:

Newell, Nick (2021) Langdale Water taxi. Nauticapedia.ca 2020. http://nauticapedia.ca/Gallery/Langdale_Taxi.php

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